Dumping sites like this, right out in the open, exist all over Puerto Rico. Nobody here seems to care. Tourists do...

Please examine the photo: Disgusting. This just so happens to be within about 100 yards of Young Ambassadors Academy, K-12 school in Cabo Rojo along the 100 highway.

In fact, you can find scenes like this all over Puerto Rico. Why?

Puerto Rico was (at least at some point) a natural Paradise, but it certainly seems like the inhabitants here are doing absolutely everything in their power to utterly destroy it. An island of extremely limited land mass, being destroyed one bag at a time.

Where are these kinds of photos on the Porta del Sol website? Of course they are not there. Yet the more I see this stuff day after day, the more I think what a fraud for visitors who are presented with all the hand picked beauty, and then subjected to all the trash between point A and point B for their key tourism destinations.

It kind of reminds me of the scandal that hit the news during the Christmas holiday’s when a Lapland Christmas theme park turned out to be nothing like described, and had children crying their eyes out and parents ready to launch lawsuits. Key point: It sounded absolutely amazing, but it was nothing like described.

Maybe the fine print on the Porta del Sol website should indicate:

Photos on site not representative of real state of island. Visitors advised to take public transportation between tourism destinations, keeping eyes closed until arrival.

Forget about recycling. Forget about the environmental issues of open landfills. We’re not going to be able to tackle those kinds of issues as long as citizens are willing to treat the entire island like one big bagless trash can.

A good symbol of how the island is treated. Maybe the recycling bin is too generous.

Take a drive along the shore from Mayaguez to Joyuda. It’s even worse in many areas. The two words that keep ringing in my ears when I drive through that area are expropriation and bulldozer. Yes, through forced government acquisition, buy everything from the many slummers and dumpers who are living there… then plow the buildings down, truck the rubbish away, and fill in a valley somewhere with it all (I guess)… and then make it one big shoreline greenbelt or parkway.

Organizers for the Mayaguez-side development for Mayaguez 2010 must really believe the visitors are NOT going to venture beyond the stadium and tiny area of shoreline park they are constructing there! I hope they are right. How about a public campaign for “Clean it up for 2010“? How can people accept this?

I guess everyone has to find their niche, right?

Joyuda – The best seafood restaurants and one of the most trashy shoreline drives

I don’t want to pick on Joyuda too much. They are just one example among the multitudes. The reality is, this is happening all over Puerto Rico. In fact, if you were in Barceloneta a few years ago, you would have found an open air mass pet execution site just under a bridge (for which nobody is/was responsible apparently).

Roadside looking up towards Young Ambassadors Academy, Just off the 100 Highway in Cabo Rojo

I urge Puerto Rican journalists such as those in Caribbean Business who analyze the stats for hotel occupancy and airline capacity, etc to direct more focus to this issue. If you want to know why Puerto Rico tourism is not growing like it should be… take a look around. Direct more attention to the issue of trash in your articles. You are the authorities. You can be sure Fortuno is NOT reading *my* blog, but he’s reading your paper. And so are all the tourism officials and all those that need some strong smelling salts ASAP. Forget about the coffee. They need more than that to wake up. You might even be skillful enough to do it without alienating any of your big advertisers.

To anyone in Puerto Rico who would dare contributing to “trashing Paradise”: Be ashamed. Disgusting.

Where is WALL-E when you need him? How about 100 human WALL-Es instead?

The Insider

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